Lesson Plan
Dividing Decimals: Estimation
Teach your students to round decimals to whole numbers to estimate a quotient. In this lesson, students will have so much fun playing the Estimation Station game, they might forget they are learning!
Grade:
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Learning Objectives
Students will be able to round a decimal to a whole number to estimate a quotient.
Introduction
(5 minutes)- Show a video to review the concept of rounding (see related media).
- Write a decimal, like 5.63, on the board and ask students to round it to the tenths place. Then ask students to round it to the nearest whole number (e.g., "Show me a thumbs-up if we should round up or a thumbs-down if we should round down.").
- Tell students, "Today we are going to learn how to use rounding to estimate quotients when we are dividing decimals."
Beginning
- Provide a transcript of the song lyrics with larger font and key terms highlighted. Provide visuals of each of the terms.
- Ask students to tell you the difference between a decimal number and whole number. Allow students to use their home language (L1) or new language (L2) in all their discussions throughout the lesson.
- Continue using the hand motions for rounding up and down throughout the lesson.
Intermediate
- Write the academic language they can use throughout the lesson on the board as you introduce the language (e.g., "whole number," "tenths," "hundredths," "rounding up," "estimation," etc.).
- Ask them to tell you the process you used to round the decimal number to a whole number.